2 hours ago
1
Former Barcelona star Lionel Messi cast his vote for Mikel Arteta in the FIFA Men's Best Coach award. The voting process allowed selected captains, coaches, and media to choose their preferred coach.
Luis Enrique, who received Messi's five-point vote, clinched the award, outperforming the other six nominees. However, Messi awarded his one-point vote to Arsenal's manager, while Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick received his three-point vote. The Argentine superstar opted to overlook Liverpool's title-winning boss Arne Slot.
Despite being the only nominee not to have secured any silverware in 2025, Arteta, the Spaniard, still managed to rank fourth overall, trailing behind Hansi Flick and Slot, neither of whom received votes from Messi.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, who was named in The Best FIFA Men's 11, unsurprisingly went for his own boss in Slot, ahead of Champions League winner Enrique and Flick.
Teammate and Scotland skipper Andy Robertson went with the same order, as did Dominik Szoboszlai, but Mohamed Salah picked Enrique ahead of his own boss.
Arsenal and Norway captain Martin Odegaard allocated his five points to Luis Enrique, three to Arteta, and one to Flick. This isn't entirely unexpected, given that Enrique garnered nearly half of the available points.
The esteem for the Arsenal coach is evidently high within the football world, as he was voted ahead of figures such as Enzo Maresca, Roberto Martinez and Javier Aguirre.
For instance, despite winning both the FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Conference League, the Chelsea boss was deemed less deserving of votes by the sport's key influencers than the Arsenal manager.
In other FIFA Best Awards developments, Declan Rice's free-kick, netted in the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid, narrowly missed out on the Puskas Award to Independiente's Santiago Montiel.
The Argentine winger wowed with a bicycle kick from outside the box, securing enough votes to clinch the award. Rice will be aiming to establish his presence in the Best Men's Player category, which was scooped up this year by Ousmane Dembele.
Liverpool votes
Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands)
Manager - Arne Slot, Luis Enrique, Hansi Flick
Player - Mohamed Salah, Ousmane Dembele, Nuno Mendes
Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
Manager - Luis Enrique, Arne Slot, Hansi Flick
Player - Achraf Hakimi, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe
Andy Robertson (Scotland)
Manager - Arne Slot, Luis Enrique, Hansi Flick
Player - Mohamed Salah, Ousmane Dembele, Nuno Mendes
Dominik Szoboszlai
Manager - Arne Slot, Luis Enrique, Hansi Flick
Player - Mohamed Salah, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe
English (US) ·